20 comments:

What a great picture! Wonder what they talked about. I've been meaning to read something by Burroghs for years, but the usual fanboys-craze has always washed me away. Maybe the makers and the readers of the Gunslinger can offer a newbie some advice? Where to start?

To me Burroughs looks like the lead detective in the case, getting absolutely nowhere with the witness he's been stuck with interviewing.

I like some of Burroughs' writing, but I've never considered myself a fan of his (Saint Nick Tosches once wrote that Burroughs' greatest achievement was passing off his third-rate Science Fiction as literature for the ages). 'Naked Lunch' is generally regarded his masterwork; that's probably as good a place to start as any.

I admire Burroughs a lot but his work is definitely not for everyone. You might consider starting with Junkie (or Junky), H.P. L. since it's one of his earliest books and semi-autobiographical. As Tom already said, Naked Lunch is considered his seminal work so you could also start there. Some of my other recommendations would be The Soft Machine, his anthologies like The Burroughs File and the collection of his letters written in 1945-59.

I also have a soft spot for The Last Words of Dutch Schultz. I happen to own an autographed copy of it that I stumbled on at a used bookshop in San Francisco. Apparently no one had noticed it was autographed and the price tag read $3 so naturally I bought it. When I brought it up to the counter the sales clerk almost fainted but she had to sell it to me as it was priced. I love happy accidents!

I'm with Vincet on this one. His life story is wild---though a lot of his writing is pretty silly and certainly not for everyone. I read a lot of his work as a teenager and thinking of it now makes me cringe.

Having said that, I seem to remember liking that collection of letters that Kimberly mentioned quite a bit. If I had to read anything by him now, I'd choose that.

If for some reason I were forced to keep reading Burroughs after revisiting the letters, I'd go for Exterminator, a collection of short stories.

Fred - Burroughs was not a trust fund baby; if anything, he would be classed a remittance man, as the family paid him a small monthly sum to say the hell away from them. They did not share in the Burroughs adding machine fortune ...

burroze: what an overrated hyped-up paranoid son of billionaire chained and doped to a typewriter. how eminently forgettable, the clash; splendifferous after spliffing, but dated like used toilet paper. heard them muzaked in the supermarkedt yesterday. "culture", put down the gun... kiss your ass goodbye